Child porn users to cop it

File picture: AP

File picture: AP

Published Mar 25, 2017

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Johannesburg – The 14-year-old girl used a friend’s cellphone and recorded an explicit video of herself which she wanted to send to a friend. Now, thousands of people who shared the footage of the teen touching herself may be criminally charged with distributing child pornography on social media.

The video went viral after it was first shared on Facebook this week, then distributed on Twitter and uploaded to YouTube.

Piet Pieterse, head of the South African Police Service’s electronic crime unit, said on Friday he would personally oversee the matter and had prioritised tracking down the initial source of the video online and those who shared it. “My team will work on it as a matter of priority because we take sexual exploitation, especially of children, very seriously. Those who have the video on their devices are in possession of child pornography. That is a crime. And those who shared the video on social media are guilty of distributing child pornography. There will be consequences.”

Police national spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo also warned that anyone in possession of the video and those who have distributed it will face a possible five years’ imprisonment.

On Thursday, Metro FM talk show host and social activist Criselda Dudumashe contacted the family of the teen. Dudumashe said on her Facebook page that the girl used a friend’s phone to record the explicit video.

In a TruFM radio interview on Friday, Dudumashe explained that it was unclear who uploaded the video but that after she recorded it, and gave the phone back to her friend, the girl asked that the video be deleted.

But this friend said they didn’t know the video was on the device and had left the phone at their cousin’s house.

Pieters explained that if the video was shared by another minor, police would need to get guidance from a State prosecutor.

“But if there was contravention of a statutory offence, we would still charge the individuals concerned and bring them to court.”

Saturday Star

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